Recognition and Culture to create Engagement

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As a business owner, you know how important it is to attract and retain top talent, so you’ve created an employee share ownership plan; recognition and engagement are important. This can be a great strategy to offer recognition of employees’ efforts in order to increase engagement and retention.

Recognition and Engagement

I recently read an article in Benefits and Pensions Monitor called “How recognition bolsters engagement and shields employees from burnout”, which indicated a few things that align with ESOPs. A report from Workhuman and Gallup, ‘Empowering Workplace Culture Through Recognition’ shows employees who believe that recognition is an important part of their organization’s culture are 3.7 times as likely to be engaged, 3.8 times as likely to feel connected to their culture, and half as likely to experience frequent burnout as those who do not. ESOPs can lead to greater company performance if the company can engage their workforce (recognition and engagement). This comes down to what the report is saying about recognition and culture “the research highlights crucial considerations for leadership in reinforcing strong organizational cultures.” Without building a strong foundation in the culture, programs and initiatives like ESOPs or more traditional recognition plans likely won’t see the success you desire.

According to the article, a very small number (34 percent) of employees say their employer has a recognition program in place, only 13 percentage of which rate it as excellent. What seems to be the key here is aligning recognition program with the values of the organization as employees who perceive that to be the case are 4.9 times as likely believe they know what is expected of them at work. This is also a key element within ESOPs and the plan is more likely to be successful when employees understand why the ESOP was put in place, how it aligns with the company’s values, or how they individually impact company success in their everyday work (again recognition and engagement).

“Employee engagement is critical to the productivity, morale, development, and retention of every organization’s workforce.”

https://www.nceo.org/employee-ownership-data/academic-research

Making the most out of your plan can be challenging

We offer ESOPlus®, which is designed to provide detailed tools and resources to support the ESOP after it has launched. These are designed to improve activities that establish an ownership culture and drive Plan success such as engaging employees and establishing participative practices. It is ideal for Plans that are meant to be ongoing, drive higher engagement from employees, attract new talent, retain team members, and support succession planning.

ESOP companies that have established an ownership culture through participation and engagement are more likely to see positive results like higher productivity, innovation, retention, engagement, and profits.

What’s included in ESOPlus®?

  1. An engagement measurement tool (CORE4ESOP) to help you track and analyze Plan performance and ensure it is meeting its goals.
  2. Templates and guides that are detailed, clear, engaging, and customizable to help integrate your Plan into other company strategies such as attracting and retaining employees.
  3. Workshops along with direct access to an ESOP expert to assist the ESOP Committee and employee shareholders as a whole to truly engage and participate in ownership.
  4. A workbook with templates for you to establish your Plan Committee and communication strategy, and set them up for success long-term.
  5. Administration guides and third party portal access for employee visibility of company ownership
  6. Exclusive access to the most recent and relevant data specifically from small and medium sized private Canadian companies that have an employee ownership program.

All with access to your own ESOP advisor.

Learn more about the benefits of employee share ownership and how ESOPlus® can help you effectively administer your ESOP by visiting the ESOPlus® page or booking a call.

The magic ingredient for creating a successful ESOP

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ESOPs, participative management

Employee ownership works. It makes companies, on average, better, faster, and stronger. The typical employee-owner stays with his or her company longer, and many of them come up with the kinds of creative ideas that can push expenses lower than managers thought possible, or that open up new lines of business. Overall, the statistics show that, on average, everyone comes out ahead with employee ownership.

Not surprisingly, some companies do far better than their peers, and some employee-owned businesses do not get any performance benefit at all, or may even do worse. 

What separates the companies that outperform from the ones that underperform?

A successful ESOP requires open communication. The Plan itself creates the conditions for company success, however strong communication and participation make the plan successful long-term in order to experience the benefits everyone expects. 

Employee ownership

Studies have shown that participative ESOPs that are fully and clearly communicated enhance employee engagement (rather than their desire to control the company) leading to high productivity, increased profits, and increased wealth for all. 

If people are going to think and act like owners, they need a basic level of understanding of the plan through which they have that ownership. Here are some of the methods our clients have used to communicate an understanding of their ESOP to their employee-owners.

Hold meetings: Bring everyone together in large groups to announce the ESOP and to cover some of the most common questions about the plan. Do not go into great detail just yet. 

Set up a peer-to-peer training group to further communicate the ESOP in small groups. People can be elected or invited to join a training group and given the time and resources to create a training program. The most successful groups have the active support of the CFO, who can make sure that they have accurate information and can answer all of the group’s questions. These communication groups may even talk with similar committees at other companies so they can share PowerPoint slides, handouts, and agenda items.

Have written materials: Provide information about the ESOP in written format for the people who need to see things in black and white. Employees’ spouses can read them as well.

Let the ESOP sell itself: Most employee ownership plans are good deals for the employees. If they trust the information they receive, rather than suspecting it of being sugar-coating or emphasizing only the positive, they will likely come to their own conclusion that the plan is a good thing. 

Target “just in time” information: People learn best when the learning is digestible and repeated. Young employees who have just joined the company do not need to know all the details about the timeline on which they will be paid out when they leave the company, but they probably do want to know the eligibility rules.

Share stories: Not much is as persuasive to human beings as stories. Talk about people who have retired from your company with substantial value in their ESOP accounts, or, if your plan is newer, use examples from other employee-owned companies. Tell the story of why your company became employee-owned. What were the other options? Why did the company choose employee-ownership over those other options?

Use statistics: Some people prefer to see the numbers, so don’t hesitate to show them research—but only the highlights– on the implications of employee ownership for employee-owners, your company and ultimately the community. Good sources of data, even though most are from American companies, are the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), the ESOP Association (US) and the ESOP Association Canada.

Employee Engagement is Affected by Neuroscience

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What is the foundation for effective employee engagement within your ESOP?

Trust. 

Actually, trust is the foundation for every relationship, in any area of your life.  And the only way to create a workplace environment for greater connection, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and success, is by building incrementally higher levels of trust every day.

A basic understanding of neuroscience can allow us to have a simple, understandable dialogue about some of the elements that instill trust, employee engagement, and can lead to an even more successful Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP).

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How Does an ESOP Fit for the Millennial Generation?

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Canadians born between 1979 and 2000 now outnumber baby boomers for the first time in history.  The Millennials (or Generation Y) form a distinctive segment of the work force, aged 16 to 37 years old.  There are two types of Millennials:  those aged 16 to 27 have been called the iGeneration Millennials since they were raised with iPads; while those aged 28 to 37 are called the Net Generation Millennials as they were brought up on the internet.

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